Yao expects to continue playing with Rockets

If Yao can play again, he wants it to be hereCenter hopes to resume career after latest injury

JONATHAN FEIGEN, Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Thursday, March 10, 2011

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

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Rockets center Yao Ming, shown after a preseason game in Guangzhou, China, expects to return to the court.

Rockets center Yao Ming, shown after a preseason game in Guangzhou, China, expects to return to the court.

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

Yao expects to continue playing with Rockets

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Rockets center Yao Ming canï¿½t know whether he will play again, but he is certain heï¿½s not ready for his career to be over yet.

Facing the possibility that his inability to play without injury would end his career or prompt him to choose to retire, Yao said for the first time since his injury he hopes to come back from the stress fracture that ended his season in November.

ï¿½Iï¿½ll try continuing,ï¿½ Yao said Thursday. ï¿½A lot will depend on this foot.ï¿½

Asked if he believes he will play again, he said, ï¿½Thatï¿½s the direction.ï¿½

In the final season of his contract, Yao added he hopes to be back with the Rockets.

ï¿½I like it here. Iï¿½m used to playing here,ï¿½ he said. ï¿½Iï¿½m comfortable, really, really comfortable to play here, and I have my family here. Iï¿½m not really planning to leave.ï¿½

Told of Yaoï¿½s comments, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey would not discuss the teamï¿½s plans, but he was as clear about his preference.

ï¿½If heï¿½s healthy and the doctors say he can play,ï¿½ Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, ï¿½of course we want him back again.ï¿½

An eight-time All-Star, including this season after playing in just five games, Yao said he has not had any conversations with the Rockets about his plans. Morey did not know Yao hoped to resume his career until Yao said it prior to the teamï¿½s annual Tux & Tennies Gala at Toyota Center on Thursday.

ï¿½I think right now, itï¿½s more focused on my injury, how Iï¿½m going to come back,ï¿½ Yao said. ï¿½About the future, I think it will all depend on this foot.ï¿½

Not as severe an injury

Yao had said last offseason that if he could not stay healthy after the series of bone injuries that had ended or interrupted five straight seasons that he would retire. He played just five games before suffering another stress fracture Nov. 10 and undergoing surgery in December.

In statements at the time, he was noncommittal about his plans. The injury and surgery were not as serious as the previous injury and subsequent reconstructive surgery to alter the left foot. Though the latest injury was to the same foot, it was not considered a career-ending injury and no complications from the previous procedure were found.

Yao had quickly returned to the weight room after his surgery, working as if he hoped to play again. Still wearing a protective boot and walking with crutches, he said Thursday he was still 10 weeks away from moving to on-court rehab that will go a long way toward determining his ability to come back.

Knows the routine

ï¿½I cannot tell you now because I am still in very limited workouts,ï¿½ he said. ï¿½I still cannot walk on my full weight. I have to try on the court running up and down and then see how itï¿½s going. We need to go into workout, rehab and this sort of thing.ï¿½

Yao thought his career might be over ï¿½when everybody started to ask that question. Then, I started to think about it. Itï¿½s never an end. Even when itï¿½s an end, itï¿½s a new start, a new beginning.ï¿½

Despondent in the months that followed the injury in the 2009 playoffs, Yao has learned how to deal with the disappointment and the rigors of rehabilitation.

ï¿½When you lay on a bed and eat hamburgers and drink soda, actually your day is pretty easy, not too hard,ï¿½ Yao said. ï¿½One day, you realize you already gained 20 pounds. The tough part is always come back, always slowly start the engine again. The good side is I have experience. The bad side is I know how hard it is. I know how painful it is ahead of me.ï¿½

Though he said there is ï¿½a possibilityï¿½ his career is over, for the first time he left little doubt about his intentions.

ï¿½While I believe this ï¿½ifï¿½ is a possibility I will not be able to come back and play,ï¿½ Yao said, ï¿½I will always tell myself I always did everything I could.ï¿½